Raffaela e Mario
Their love was immense.
For our Grandmother, it was the first and only love of her life.
Raffaela and Mario met as teenagers during their high school years, on the island of Elba, off the Tuscan coast. She was fifteen, he was eighteen. In 1937, they chose each other, and never let go.
They lived through the war years in Tuscany, through bombings, separation, and long stretches of silence in which she feared he might already be dead or prisoner in a concentration camp. Peace, when it finally came, was not an ending but a continuation: leaving the horror behind, building a family, a life resumed after interruption.
Together for seventy-one years, their story is not one of grand gestures, but of a love that endured history and the ordinary passing of days, remaining, always a shared life.
Raffaela “Lella” Immella
Nonna Lella was born on 28 January 1919 in Riparbella, in the province of Pisa, Tuscany, the youngest of three siblings.
From an early age, she carried a quiet strength that distinctively shaped her life. Resilient, practical and honest, she was educated at a Classical high school and had a natural gift for writing and a talent for creating with her hands. She embroidered with care, sewed her own clothes on a pedal-powered Necchi machine, and approached every task with precision as well as creativity.
She always put others first - family, guests, those in need - asking little for herself. Thia ia something that genuinely shines through her diaries. Generous, parsimonious, quietly authoritative, she then became the anchor of her family, holding its rhythms, memories, and sense of home together.
Petite - Mario often teased her about her “vita da vespa” when he held her - Lella was ingeneous, always finding a way. An exceptional Tuscan cook, Nonna delighted in tradition while radiating light-heartedness: ironic, cheerful, quick to laugh, and never speaking ill of others. Her presence uplifted everyone around her, her laughter contagious and unforgettable.
Mario Badalassi
Nonno Mario was born on 29 January 1916 in Ardenza, near Livorno, Tuscany.
Raised in a rigorous educational environment - first with the Scolopi and later the Jesuits - since he was a kid he developed a deep sense of order and discipline, but paired with a remarkably open and modern mind.
He had a profound love for literature and language, wrote beautifully, and possessed the sharp, playful wit of a true Tuscan man: ironic, occasionally biting, always intelligent. Very sharp. A man of great culture and rhetorical skill, he was a natural storyteller, someone people loved to listen to, including us grandchildren. He was fascinated by meteorology, by clouds and the changing skies, and he could read the weather as if it were a living text. He also drew exceptionally well, and in his youth was strikingly handsome - often compared, later on, to Marcello Mastroianni.
During the War, his passion for flight led him to enlist in the Italian Air Force, where his career distinguished him throughout the conflict. He was awarded the Silver Medal for Military Valor (picture below) for aiding British sailors after a raid in which his squadron had struck their submarine, an act that reflected both courage and humanity.
By the end of the War, he had risen to the rank of Major General, respected not only for his intelligence, courage and skill, but also for the care and responsibility he showed toward those under his command. He believed that true leadership meant caring and looking after others.
His personal aircraft, a CantZ 506, and his medals are still preserved today at the Air Force Museum in Vigna di Valle, close to Rome. A legacy that fills us with immense pride.
Love during World War II
Mario and Raffaella were married in Castiglioncello on 30 May 1942, in the midst of a world already unraveling. Their wedding was simple and joyful, but shaped by the constant uncertainty of those times: life could change overnight.
Just over a year later, on 8 October 1943, history tore them apart. Only hours before the Armistice, Mario received orders to take off for Sardinia with his air squad and join the Allies. From that moment on, he vanished from Raffaella’s life: eleven long months without a single word, a sign, or certainty that he was still alive.
It is within this sudden, devastating silence - between a young marriage and his disappearance - that these diaries begin.
